Role Novelist Nationality Indian Parents Leila Seth, Prem Seth | Period 1980–present Siblings Aradhana Seth, Shantum Name Vikram Seth | |
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Alma mater St. Xavier's High School, PatnaThe Doon SchoolCorpus Christi College, OxfordStanford University Notable works A Suitable BoyThe Golden GateAn Equal MusicA Suitable Girl Books A Suitable Boy, The Golden Gate, An Equal Music: A Novel, Two Lives, From Heaven Lake: Tra Similar People Leila Seth, Amitav Ghosh, Arundhati Roy, Jhumpa Lahiri, Salman Rushdie | ||
Talking heads with vikram seth and justice leila seth aired december 2005
Vikram Seth CBE (; born June 20, 1952) is an Indian novelist and poet. He has written several novels and poetry books. He has received several awards including Padma Shri, Sahitya Akademi Award, Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, WH Smith Literary Award and Crossword Book Award. Seth's collections of poetry such as Mappings and Beastly Tales are notable contributions to the Indian English language poetry canon.
Contents
- Talking heads with vikram seth and justice leila seth aired december 2005
- From lyric novel to lyric stage vikram seth s the golden gate as novel in verse and opera
- Background
- Work
- Career
- Awards
- References
From lyric novel to lyric stage vikram seth s the golden gate as novel in verse and opera
Background
Vikram Seth was born on 20 June 1952 in Kolkata, India. His father, Prem Nath Seth, was an executive of Liberty Shoes and his mother, Leila Seth, a barrister by training, became the first female Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court.
He studied at St. Michael's High School, Patna and at The Doon School in Dehradun. After graduating from Doon, Seth went to Tonbridge School, England, to complete his A-levels, He also studied at St. Xavier's High School, Patna. Later he moved to the United Kingdom and read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He then pursued a Ph.D. in Economics at Stanford University.
Having lived in London for many years, Seth maintains residences near Salisbury, England, where he is a participant in local literary and cultural events, having brought and renovated the house of the Anglican poet George Herbert in 1996, and in Jaipur, India.
In 2006, he became a leader of the campaign against Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, a law against homosexuality. His mother has written about Seth's sexuality and her coming to terms with it in her memoir.
Work
Seth has published six books of poetry and three novels. In 1980, he wrote poem of Mappings, his first poem. The publication of A Suitable Boy, a 1,349-page novel, propelled Seth into the public limelight and won the WH Smith Literary Award in 1993. An Equal Music, published in 1999, deals with the troubled love life of a violinist. Seth's work Two Lives published in 2005 is a memoir of the marriage of his great uncle and aunt.
In addition to The Golden Gate, Seth has written other works of poetry including Mappings (1980), The Humble Administrator's Garden (1985), All You Who Sleep Tonight (1990) and Three Chinese Poets (1992). His children's book, Beastly Tales from Here and There (1992) consists of ten stories about animals. He has authored a travel book, From Heaven Lake: Travels through Sinkiang and Tibet (1983), an account of a journey through Tibet, China and Nepal. Vikram Seth was also commissioned by the English National Opera to write a libretto based on the Greek legend of Arion and the Dolphin. The opera was performed for the first time in June 1994.
Career
Seth's former literary agent Giles Gordon recalled being interviewed by Seth for the position:
Vikram sat at one end of a long table and he began to grill us. It was absolutely incredible. He wanted to know our literary tastes, our views on poetry, our views on plays, which novelists we liked.
Seth later explained to Gordon that he had passed the interview not because of commercial considerations, but because unlike the others he was the only agent who seemed as interested in his poetry as in his other writing. Seth followed what he has described as "the ludicrous advance for that book" (£250,000 for A Suitable Boy) with £500,000 for An Equal Music and £1.4 million for Two Lives. He prepared an acrostic poem for his address at Gordon's 2005 memorial service.
Seth was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2001.